1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC recording/reproducing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There is an IC in which a memory is used as a recording medium for audio signals, and the memory, a recording circuit and a reproducing circuit are incorporated into one chip. Such an IC cannot carry out recording for a long time unlike a tape recorder, but can carry out recording for several minutes. This is therefore suitable for simply recording such a brief message as a memo, i.e., a matter of business or the like.
If it is a memory, the recording medium records and reproduces signals in address order in the structure of the address management.
For this reason, it is necessary to manage records by assigning a number to each of matters of business recorded among others and to erase any unnecessary matters of business in accordance with this management information, and therefore, the operations become complicated. Also, even if there are some matters which may be erased, the recording time will not be taken long unless they are erased in advance.
The present invention intends to solve these problems. For this reason, the present invention provides an IC recording/reproducing apparatus, comprising:
a memory to/from which writing/reading of an audio signal is performed; and
a control circuit for controlling writing/reading of the audio signal to/from this memory, and its address,
the control circuit controlling so that on writing and reading the audio signal to and from the memory, its address becomes ring-shaped,
writing, when a recording key is pressed, the audio signal from an address contiguous to an area, within the memory, where the writing, which has never been read after the writing, is performed, and
reading, when a reproduction key is pressed, the audio signal from the head of an area, within the memory, where the writing, which has never been read after the writing, is performed.
Therefore, on recording, no overwriting is performed on any matters which have not yet been reproduced, but a new matter is overwritten to matters which have been reproduced even once. Also, on reproducing, a matter which has not yet been reproduced is preferentially reproduced.